When you hear the word slavery what do you
imagine? Downtrodden child-miners, cotton-pickers singing hymns
in the fields? What about the word enthralled surely that speaks
of a child's wonder over the rainbow or a lovers devotion to
their beloveds beauty? Nope, enthralled actually means enslaved,
and likewise, a thrall was a Norse slave, not a subject for many
experts these days. But Judith Lindbergh, author of The Thrall's
Tale, is one of them after a decade spent researching the
topic.

Thankfully she never lets the weight of
detail acquired during that research to overwhelm the three tales
here. Although if you're seeking a historic epic romance than
think again there's much more to this book. The three female
narrators in this story lived in rough conditions at the very
edge of the known universe about 1000 years ago. Katla is a feisty
slave girl taught the rudiments of Christianity by her Irish
mother. Bibrau is her daughter born from a rape and schooled
in the ways of Norse runes, sacrifices, and healing by Thorbjorg
- a seeress whose life is constantly threatened by the very wisdom
she dispenses.

As each woman meets her own destiny in the
newly founded colony of Greenland, the stunning scenery of the
place and the varied cast of other pioneers are painted by Lindbergh
in near cinematic terms. When more than half the pioneering fleet
is crushed in a iceberg field she involves us in the seasickness
too, visitors to the main longhouse ride across frozen fjords
to celebrate yule in style, and scenes of weaving, harvesting,
and even training falcons give us valuable insight in the lives
of such tiny communities clinging to life in a land which is
mainly covered in sinister glaciers despite the promise inherent
in the green of its name an early marketing ploy by Eric the
Red if ever there was one!

With the tale beginning with Katla and following
her struggle for freedom and love, it is a welcome contrast to
find Thorbjorg's voice so ably documented as well. The seeress
is nearing the end of a long and difficult life and has gathered
a motley team of Thrall's around her, all of them damaged in
some physical or emotional way, but she runs a surprisingly open
household despite the element of slavery. The third strand of
the tale troubled me though, Bibraus voice is so bitter (and
with good reason, it must be said) that it left me losing sympathy
with Katla and Thorbjorg because she despises them so much. Ultimately
too much of the middle portion of the book lingers over her training
as a seeress which could have been brushed over more lightly
given the earlier portions about Thorbjorg's skills and beliefs.
We all love a good villain in fiction and Bibrau certainly has
her tragic flaws and suitably dramatic ending, but somehow she
didn't work for me.

Additionally, if that slower middle section
had been shrunk, the clash between the Norse beliefs and those
of the new Christianity brought to the colony for trade purposes
could have been examined in much greater depth and, given the
characters involved, might have yielded more drama and revelation.

Nonetheless, this book held my attention
to the well-resolved ending and revived my interest in things
Nordic. Images of a fledging Greenland will linger in my minds
eye clearly enough to make me wonder if Judith Lindbergh has
a time-travel-machine under her bed. Which leaves me with one
more puzzle. Which of the three women was the thrall in the end
a slave to a master, a slave to hate, and a slave to God little
wonder that being enthralled is not always a pleasant state of
being.

The paperback edition of this book is due
out this month, but if you love books, consider the magnificently
bound hardback edition you will feel like you have a genuine
Viking saga in your hands and as this novel proves, those sagas
are rich source material for any reader or writer.